Hulagu Khan
"If you wish to spare yourself and your venerable family, give heed to my advice with the ear of intelligence. If you do not, you will see what God has willed." - Hulagu Khan Hulagu Khan, also known as Hulagu, Hülegü or Hulegu (Mongolian: Хүлэгү, Khülegü; Chagatai/Persian: ہلاکو - Hulaku; Arabic:هولاكو; c. 1217 – February 8, 1265), was a Mongol ruler who heavily contributed to the downfall of the Assassins. Hulagu's dynasty unified much of Persia following several-hundred years of political fragmentation. It was in Hulagu's reign that Persian historians switched from writing in Arabic to writing in Persian. Campaign Against the Assassins "I will burn your city, your land, your self." - Hulagu Khan Hulagu's brother Mongke had been installed as Great Khan in 1251. In 1255, Mongke charged his brother Hulagu with leading a massive Mongol army to conquer or destroy the remaining Muslim states in southwestern Asia. Hulagu's campaign sought the destruction of the Hashshashin cult; the subjugation of the Lurs, a people of southern Persia; the submission or destruction of the Abbasid caliphate based in Baghdad; the submission or destruction of the Ayyubid states in Syria, based in Damascus; and finally, the submission or destruction of the Bahri Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. Mongke ordered Hulagu to treat kindly those who submitted, and utterly destroy those who did not. Hulagu vigorously carried out the latter part of these instructions. Hulagu marched out with perhaps the largest Mongol army ever assembled—by order of Mongke, two in ten fighting men in the entire empire were gathered for Hulagu's army. Alamut and Maymundiz The Ismaili forts were the last line of defense against Mongol presence in Persia. The Mongols had a hard time conquering the Ismaili forts. Hulagu Khan with 5,000 men started a siege against Girdkuh in 1253. After a three year siege with no success, he was disappointed with his commanders therefore he took over an army of 10,000 soldiers and moved toward Alamut. In 1256, Lord of Alamut, Rukn al-Din commenced a series of gestures demonstrating his submission to the Mongols. In a show of his compliance and at the demand of Hulagu Khan, Rukn al-Din began the dismantling process at Alamut Castle, Maymundiz and Lambsar Castle, removing towers and battlements. However as winter approached, Hulagu took these gestures to be a means of delaying his seizure of the castles and on 8 November 1256 the Mongol troops quickly encircled the Maymundiz fortress and residence of the Imam. The Mongol commander Hulagu and his Chinese engineers probably established their positions on relatively level ground where Maymundiz was in range of their new weapons. After four days of preliminary bombardment with significant casualties for both sides, the Mongols assembled their mangonels around the castle in preparation for a direct siege. Inside the caves, fires are burning, caused by javelin sized incendiary arrows shot by the Mongols' kaman-i gav; giant crossbows. There was still no snow on the ground and the attacks proceeded, forcing Rukn al-Din to declare his surrender in exchange for his and his family's safe passage. After another bombardment, Rukn al-Din descended from Maymundiz on the 19th of November. Hulagu Khan asked Rukn-ud-Din Khurshah to order his followers to surrender, but Lambsar, Gerdkuh and Alamut did not follow the order. In December 1256 AD, Alamut castle was surrendered and it's library was burned. Before burning it, with the permission of Hulegu, chronicler Juvayni explored the library and selected a few works he deemed worthy of salvaging, before the remainder was set aflame. His choice items included copies of the Qur'an, a number of astronomical instruments and treatises, and a number of Ismaili works. An anti-Ismaili, Ata-Malik Juvayni's personal leanings were the sole measure of heretical content of the library's doctrinal works. Thus, some of the richest treatises regarding the tenets of Ismaili faith were lost with his destruction of the library. From his tour and survey of the castle, Juvayni compiled a description of Alamut that he incorporated into his chronicle of the Mongol invasions, entitled Tarikh-i Jahangushay-i Juvaini ("The History of the World Conqueror"). The Last Assassin Castles After a year of resisting, a cholera epidemic in 1257 AD took many lives in Lambsar and allowed the Mongols to succeed. Hulagu ordered the fort ruined and beheaded whoever had survived the deadly disease. In 1260, the Mongols under Hulagu conquered most of northern Syria and briefly occupied Masyaf. However, following the Mongols' rout at the Battle of Ain Jalut at the hand of the Bahri Mamluks later that year, they withdrew from Masyaf. Girdkuh held out against the Mongol siege for 17 years, and was the last Assassin stronghold in Persia to surrender to Mongols. The garrison of Gerdkūh finally surrendered for the want of clothing in December 1270, some thirteen years after the fall of Alamūt. The Mongols did not demolish Gerdkūh, as in the case of some other major Hashashin fortresses in Persia. In 1275 AD and again in 1389 AD, small groups of Ismailis who had survived the Mongol invasions attempted to recapture Alamut, but their attempts were short-lived. Category:Mongols